Event on the Liquor Bill

Ineng hosted an event for entrepreneurs involved in the liquor industry in Khayelitsha, Cape Town.

Leon Louw, executive director of the Free Market Foundation, explained briefly what the proposed amendments to the Liquor Bill would entail. If left the way it is currently, there will hardly be any new entrants to the liquor trade market.

The amendments don’t consider apartheid’s architecture of townships. For instance, it says there shall be no liquor business at least 500m from a sporting facility, place of worship, school or transport facility. Knowing how closely built township properties are, how many business operating currently will have to close down and how many will be shut out of the opportunities to even start?

Government shouldn’t be making it difficult for people to run businesses. They should be encouraging it through sensible regulations and this current bill is far from it.

The overall suggestion is that as communities, business owners, NGO’s, we should not take this lying down. We must challenge by making our voices heard. Either by writing letter to newspapers, calling Talk Shows, forming more structures to make others aware of the bill proposed amendments as it happened in the workshop.

One gentleman who is also in liquor trade and a member of Vuma liquor traders, he admitted that he had no idea what this bill was about and he was certain other members had no idea as well. He was grateful he had attended on Saturday.